At age 7, I had decided I wanted to work in newspapers, be an Eagle Scout and play a Division I sport. Never mind that I soon found I wasn’t really a reporter, didn’t know what sport I would do and needed to navigate Cub Scouts first.

I was supremely lucky, and probably benefited from focus, in that I did all of those things. They were fun. And then I realized I had a whole lot of years left. So. the last decade-plus has been spent trying to figure out what you do after you grow up.

Unsurprisingly, ”What’s next?” is the big question for me. This is partly curiosity, partly fear of being left behind or feeling obsolete, partly to stave off fatalism. What I’m always hoping to do is make some larger thing (a project, team, company, cause, etc.) better through my contributions. This life is a referendum on how well I do that.